Following up its eyebrow-raising ad tech announcement last week, MediaKind was back in action with the launch of Aquila Broadcast – a supplement of the Aquila Streaming technology which recently received a Google Cloud boost. We are so used to seeing broadcast technology companies launch streaming video products that this feels like an unnatural evolution.
But that backwards path to offering broadcast software – specifically IP-based broadcast software – is precisely why MediaKind has an edge.
The Ericsson IP video spin off describes Aquila Broadcast as a step-by-step transition from appliance-based platforms to all-IP media delivery, based on software-based video compression, control and stream processing techniques. Spiking costs of satellite transponder capacity, and the reduced availability of this capacity, has urged MediaKind to approach satellite and terrestrial broadcasters with the tempting transition proposition. Aquila Broadcast brings increased transponder density while retaining video quality and deployable as an appliance or as pure software, with the ability to support on-premise and cloud-based implementations – supporting MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC.
We reached out to MediaKind for comment on how much Aquila Broadcast is designed to reduce satellite costs by and increase satellite transponder density by, as well as other specifics, but the vendor did not respond in time. We also suspect, unlike the untimely Prisma ad tech product that was launched last week after about 4 years in development, that Aquila Broadcast was rushed out in reaction to the pandemic.
MediaKind’s Aquila Broadcast is not exactly what we expected when the company announced the long-awaited technology upgrade initiated by MediaKind in late 2018, which mentioned the delivery of highly personalized services across linear and on-demand video. But we understand MediaKind has been busy updating the existing Mediaroom software to provide a pathway for migrating to cloud-based services and virtualized architectures.
Aquila Broadcast promises high picture quality with resolutions up to UHD with HDR support, while also offering wide codec support and significant bandwidth savings.
From dynamic ad insertion capabilities, to broadcast IP platforms, to 5G networks – MediaKind’s series of webinars and papers coined SpringKind have been broad reaching to say the least. We thought it would be beneficial to tune into a webinar with Tony Jones, Principal Technologist at MediaKind, this week – to understand why MediaKind is harping on about 5G.
Jones’ enthusiasm stemmed from a two-week young press release, involving BT selecting Ericsson to deliver cloud native, dual-mode 5G core technology. He highlighted this as the first deployment announcement that has actually brought containerized software to the fore – which he proposes will bring significant opportunities to the video industry.
“This opens up a whole new set of possibilities that didn’t previously exist. The obvious one is better video to mobile handsets, which is true with the enhanced mobile broadband aspect of 5G which is a real asset. But it’s not just that. The distributed cloud part of it can mean more complex processing at the edge, just in time packing, personalization, targeted ads, managing blackouts, flow management – and not just using ABR in its contentious approach – and more. This is all possible through distributed cloud architecture,” explained Jones.
News and outdoor event coverage will be two primary beneficiaries of the technology. Jones cited cycling as a good example – an environment where the finish line is often in a rural area where cellular coverage could be poor, a situation worsened by large crowds and therefore making 5G backhaul hard. “You want to avoid other phones interfering with your traffic and this can be done with network splicing,” was Jones’ answer to that conundrum.
In a similar way, these technologies will accelerate a shift to remote production. Many top tier stadiums already have fiber connections, but most are still poorly served in terms of backhaul capacity like fiber. 5G can therefore bring connections to stadiums that are not fibered up to the brim, by temporarily installing FWA equipment for a one-off event.
Additional ripple effects from 5G will be felt in C-band satellite distribution, with a fast-decreasing amount of C-band spectrum which is very desirable for the mobile sector, as well as highlighting the need for efficiency improvements in encoding. 5G could be another catalyst for the shift from AVC to HEVC, in turn encouraging efficiency improvements and statmux developments.
As mentioned, MediaKind recently buddied up closer with Google Cloud to allow its Aquila Streaming software to be offered as-a-service. MediaKind customers will benefit from faster scalability, faster channel creation, and access to Android TV, Google Ad Insertion, containerization, AI and machine learning.